By SARA SALDI

Residents of an East Side Buffalo neighborhood who have been
without a local source for primary or dental care since 2009 now
have both, thanks to services being provided in the new Erie County
Health Mall (ECHM).

The mall’s dental clinic, which is being run by the UB
School of Dental Medicine, not only offers dental students the
opportunity to gain hands-on clinical experience, but also has
provided students with valuable experience in learning how to set
up a dental practice.

The mall, located in the former Matt Gajewski Clinic at 1500
Broadway, officially opened on May 2 with a ribbon-cutting attended
by UB dental school Dean Michael Glick, DMD; Erie County Executive
Mark C. Poloncarz; county health commissioner Gale Burstein; and
top executives of Catholic Health, Lake Shore Behavioral Health and
Mid-Erie Counseling and Treatment Services.

Glick spoke at the ribbon-cutting about the importance of having
a dental home within a medical facility that also offered primary
care and mental health services — for the patients being
served and for the UB dental students who would get first-hand
knowledge and experience about opening a dental practice in a
community facility.

“We are proud of our collaboration in the ECMH,”
said Glick. “It also gave us an opportunity to have our
dental students participate in creating and executing a business
plan for this dental office.”

Joseph Kerr, associate dean for administration in the dental
school, explained how UB became involved in the ECMH and how
students were engaged in the project.

Kerr said the county approached the dental school about becoming
part of the health mall. Once the school decided to make the
investment, Kerr had the idea of taking a model he participated in
during high school to get dental students involved in the clinic
and help them learn practice management skills.

“I remembered the Junior Achievement (JA) high
school-based model that gave students business knowledge and
hands-on experience forming and operating their own company, with
mentorship from community business leaders and teachers,”
said Kerr.

“We (he and his fellow high school students) would create
business plans, marketing plans and budgets, and produce and sell
products — everything you need to make a business work. Then
at the end, we would liquidate our holdings and give the returns to
the stockholders who had purchased dollar stocks.”

Kerr thought the JA model would work well with the dental
students. He asked second-year students if they would be interested
in developing a dental practice — creating a business plan
and a marketing plan, working with building plans and collaborating
with the other professionals who also would be occupying the
ECHM.

A number of students wanted to be involved. Kerr said they
decided to elect six of their peers to act as key
participants/representatives and be the contacts for decisions made
regarding the dental clinic in the health mall.

The 43 students who competed in the election wrote a short
statement explaining why they should have the opportunity. Members
of the second-year class elected Robert Atwell, Hoda Hai, Josh
McPhee, Joanna Pufnock, Kara Tress and Richard Ross to be on the
project team; Tress was elected project manager.

And the process of educating students about how to open a dental
practice began.

Kerr taught the project team members, as well as 19 other
interested students, about finance and accounting, and project
management, and brought in a financial consultant to talk about how
to value a dental practice. The students developed project and
marketing plans, a business plan, certificate of need, a budget,
policies and a list of clinic services to offered with the
assistance of dental school faculty and staff.

The result — after many months of hard work by the
students in addition to their courseloads and clinical obligations
— was a state-of-the-art dental clinic with six operatories,
an X-ray/radiology room, a lab, a conference room, a
receptionist’s area and a waiting room.

Hoangcam Nguyen, DDS, was appointed dental director; Karen
Spates was named the dental assistant; and Karen Miles the business
office manager.

Project team member Ross said dental students will play an
integral role in facilitating patient care in the clinic

“Participation in this venture will allow for students to
become well-rounded prior to graduation,” he said.

“Our early involvement in the planning process has taught
us about the business side of opening a dental practice. Our
clinical experience with the patients will help us to provide
optimal treatment that focuses on oral care in a community dental
facility. These experiences combined will add breadth, depth and
value to our education,” he said.

UB Dental expects to see its first patients at the ECMH in June.
While scheduled appointments will be available, the clinic will
also accept “walk-ins.”

Please leave blank

Comments

The UB Reporter welcomes comments from its readers. Please
submit your comments in the box below.